Don’t pay TV licence to a commercial entity

Ghanaians have in recent years endured so much that very few, if any, can commend the efforts of our governments in our national development. As often the case, the citizenry have been left on their own to provide for themselves certain amenities that they require which government often fails to provide for them.

It is very disheartening to find even toll booths placed on ‘common’ roads to collect tolls from Ghanaians. Such roads are those which should have been commonly available as it is the duty of government to provide such infrastructure. Normally projects involving heavy monetary considerations like bridges and motorways are those that require payments by motorists, but it seems, any stretch of road in Ghana can now be provided with a toll booth to collect money for the national kitty. Such is the extent to which we have been driven to, that it is a common occurrence to see monies being collected even on patchy and pot-holed roads. To date I don’t even understand why for instance tolls should be collected around Afienya, on the Akosombo road, and Moree in the Central Region.

What amazes me is that our elected representatives in Parliament, who I gather ,should have known about our plight considering the dire financial circumstances we find ourselves in at the moment, and who should have fought for us are now working in their own interest rather than the people who voted them into office. Day in and day out huge increases we experience in our essential services continue to burden the overburdened Ghanaian.

And to cap it all, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) says it is re-introducing its TV licence. Why we should pay them to produce their crap still beats my imagination. The services of GBC have been so poor we don’t need to resuscitate them. GBC is a commercial entity which should have been on its feet by now but it has failed to operate as such over the years. It still requires subvention from government which it has been subservient to over the years, because its management lacks managerial know-how.

For years, GBC has been an avenue where various governments whipped up their propagandist ideals. GBC hasn’t been innovative and has failed to operate on strictly business lines. Rather, it has enticed political connections leading to its semi-demise. Government programmes, remember not the cup of tea of most Ghanaians, are overwhelmingly GBC’s preoccupation and not the pain and suffering of the ordinary people. State visits by the Ghanaian leadership often take a chunk of their time whilst the miseries of the ordinary Ghanaian and the issues we are confronted with do not gain much prominence on its airwaves. GBC subsequently lost out to more pragmatic media outlets over the years. Many Ghanaians that I am aware of have stopped watching and even listening to GTV and GBC radio programmes for years.

Instead of ensuring that it becomes a sinewy organisation, GBC has a lot of staff who virtually do nothing. Financially it is not prudent enough and Ghanaians cannot be made to pay for its inefficiencies as we are currently paying for the ineffective and inefficient organisations like Tema Oil Refinery and others. Operationally, GTV has even added other channels which are not viable. The Obonu TV is a clear case of how the state’s resources are being dissipated. Even though it was put up for Ga people, the very people who are supposed to watch that even shun it because it is not worth watching. Why the GTV resorted to this continues to beat my imagination. Does it mean the GBC is going to provide channels for all other languages as well? If not, why only the Ga channel?

My understanding is that GTV felt there were a lot of Akan-speaking TV stations so it decided to set up a Ga station to cater for Ga people. But the truth is that those Akan stations are privately owned and therefore if GTV wants to serve us all then it must and should have done so to other ethnic groups as well. What if a Dagomba person says his ethnic group hasn’t got a TV station so he is not going to pay the TV licence because his money could be used to prop up a Ga station?

Clearly, GBC has no basis for us to pay it money to run its programmes because even in the first place as citizens we don’t even have a hand in how it is run. The BBC from where the TV licence idea emanated from is indeed a public service outlet. It does not run any advert because it not a commercial entity. It also has a board of trustees that runs it and does not operate like the GBC. When we are copying what others are doing we should ensure the basic principles are adhered to rather than only trying to amass wealth at all means.

GBC has to look for a way to ensure its sustainability. Measures that the GBC could take should include the need for the organisation to become innovative. The lack of competition over the years has made the organisation quite stale, unfocused and lacking effectiveness. It should conduct surveys to determine what the public wants in order to win Ghanaian viewers and listeners to its side. If the type of stories the GBC churns are not quite of interest then the authorities should find a way to package such stories much better. Financial prudence is also vital for the organisation. It should stop relying on numerous guest artistes even when permanent staff have little to do.

Again, it is quite surprising why our authorities think the Ghanaian can pay any levy that is imposed on them. In the last few days we have heard of agitations from workers who have not been paid for months and even years. Indeed, sometimes I wonder why our authorities do not even feel the way we do. Are they not conscious of how we feel? Our self-obsessed parliamentarians who should have highlighted our plight do not even think of us anymore. It is only during election time that they know they should be at the behest of the electorate.

Ghanaians should not be hoodwinked anymore. Ghanaians are drenched in sorrow, their cries are not being heard by the authorities, i.e. the political elite who take pride in squeezing the average person in the street. Governance requires a state of health where people can feel they are part of the decision-making process and not the other way round.

For once, let’s tell the authorities that we are not prepared to pay the TV licence. We can only pay if and when we receive salaries commensurate with the current condition we find ourselves in. We can’t have huge taxes placed on us whilst we receive very meagre salaries.

The advice to GBC is that they either innovate or fold up that is how the business world is!